Dungeons & Dragons

Main Plot

When Zatra was first conceived and created by powers unknown, the Assimar race sought to control the world for its own gain. They were god-like entities from another dimension looking for expansion and absorb the core of the planet as it contained high concentrations of energy specially geared for Assimar technology. With Zatra in their control, they could power their home world for millions of years. Yet one thing stood in their way: Destroyers, cosmic entities that roamed the stars in search of worlds to devour. Every few billion centuries that pass, some cosmic force passes the planet and eats it. What it produces as waste is another planet. When this occurs, all life is wiped out and reborn anew, eventually evolving back to a certain level of civilization. Depending on how long between each Coming occurs determines how advanced the world becomes. This is now the Third World.

<s>[Obsolete: God. A deity unlike any other, He oversaw the beauty and goodness of the Zatra after discovering the world, taking it in as a child of its own.</s>

<s>The Assimars attempted battling with the deity but were outmatched despite their sheer numbers and technological advancements. After they were defeated, they changed course in their methods of destruction and set into motion a plan that would ultimately eradicate God over time.</s>

<s>They began by planting the seed of civilization throughout the world. Their primitive states they left behind would evolve slowly into what are now considered the major races of the world. Each of these species are direct descendants of the Assimar race. God saw the race deliver their package to Zatra, but He refused to destroy what was conceivably created on the world to which He believed all living species should be protected and nurtured.</s>

<s>The weapon was planted by the Assimars with the plan of one day manipulating the civilized races into using it to destroy God. They did not realize that God could not be destroyed but split into two minor deities that were binary gods. Afterwards, the Assimars manipulated the people to use the weapon to imprison one of the gods, Koz, so that it would be vulnerable to mind-controlling abilities they possessed. When Koz was released, due to destroying the weapon upon their bidding to the people, Koz began destroying the world. A cult was formed, Nub Sumat, who worshipped the hostile deity and wished to forge the pieces of the weapon together to enslave Xxuthan thinking it will please Koz. </s>

<s>The Assimar want the world destroyed of people and the ultimate destruction of the two deities. They plan on doing this through Koz's powers to destroy the people. Xxthuan will eventually grow weak from the imbalance to which the Assimar will unleash a full assault, utilizing Koz afterwards until it, too, grows weak.]</s>

In the Third World, the Assimars created the races, left the knowledge of creating an artifact to kill the next Destroyer during the 3rd Coming so they could take over, manipulated the people to use it to destroy Cthulhu when he arrives. The leader of the Assimar race at the time was Jethar the Wise who believed he could reason with Zatrans peacefully but exposing the truth of the Destroyers and the true history of their world. Unfortunately the idea of killing "God" to save their Utopia was too embedded in their minds, and they mistook Jethar as God and destroyed him with the Loc Narr. Thousands of years past and a new leader rose above the Assimar to lead them back to Zatra. This time, deception was their intention, and they tricked Zatrans into destroying the Loc Narr as the Assimar had little care of the fate of the people, only the essence in the core. They planted illusionary thoughts of a Dual-God to Zatrans, having them create a wild goose chase to which the people thought they had imprisoned Koz , who didn't even exist.

Now the world is growing closer to its end as Cthulhu draws closer. The Loc Narr does contain unique powers that go well beyond any Zatran's cognition and could cause Cthulhu to avoid encountering Zatra. Cthulhu cannot be killed, but if the weapon was used to divert the slumbering entity, it would pass Zatra without ever knowing.

Meanwhile its mind is actively dreaming, which has been affecting Zatra in strange ways for thousands of years. Among them are the Dreamlands, a strange world that can be reached through forbidden methods. The Touch has spread throughout the world, and various impossibilities such as pockets of anti-gravity have sprung up, all because of Cthulhu's closing presence.

<s>Him, God split into two deities unknown to Assimars, used the weapon to imprison one of them (Koz). While imprisoned, he was vulnerable to Assimar's psych that controlled him into becoming hostile to the world. They now want the world destroyed of people. Then they will attack Xxuthan when it is at its weakest point. They send an Assimar to destroy party to prevent the weapon from being reforged as it can be used to remove the mind control from Koz.</s>

The world has something special about it that Assimar wants to live on it. The core is made of some kind of energy that Assimar use to power their world. Mining this out would fuel them for millions of years (it's a vast amount inside and rare).

UPDATE: Beatrice Thistle of Raven's Hollow can explain the Star Map and where to take it to once the problems of the village have been fixed (Nub Sumat removed). She sends them to the Shrine of God. It resides in the Shimmering Sea deep inside the Kingdom of Remes.

The Shrine is invisible, but they find a tombstone that gives a riddle of how to rise up 150 feet and enter the shrine. The tombstone is in a vast cemetery in the middle of no where. The tombstones are all in a circular pattern, rows inside rows, with a central monolith structure that bares no markings on it. They find a tombstone with their names on it, both being dug open. At the top level of the shrine are the moon beams that burn the locations of the Loc Nar fragments along with vague clues.

Next they seek to gain an artifact for a village in desperate need of water. A plant that yields blue leaves grows in the heart of what was once a famous alchemist's fortress called Devian Ray. His dwellings sunk into a hollow pocket that had formed underneath after countless years of draining alchemical waste that eroded the ground. Called the Sunken Citadel now, only a ruined cathedral, riddled with undead and abyssal creatures remain on the surface surrounding the sinkhole. Pages of his journal discussing the experiments to reach a place called the Dreamlands and his coveted sword are found in here along with the leaves. The sword is needed after the 6th piece is found.

After acquiring the 6th piece, they must seek the 7th, which is located on the 3rd level of the Nine Hells. To get there, they must free Devian Ray from the imprisonment of a phylactery that the Lich, Sheik Ra (Tomb of Horrors) possesses. Once freed, Devian can help guide them down the Seven Hundred Steps of Deeper Slumber into the Dreamlands to seek a Rakshasa called Nazruel. He is gifted in the arts of summoning and can bring a demon from the Abyss. To be waken, the group must enter the city of Leng, facing the dangerous inhuman goatmen who reside within, and desecrate their sacred temple to Azathoth, a Great Old One (who may be Pickles Patron). This is done by merely pouring a tonic that Devian Ray creates. By desecrating the temple, specifically the altar, Devian Ray will gain power and control over the inhumans of Leng. His next step will be to enter the Dreamlands indefinitely and dominate those within.

Known to mortals as Rahzeel, the demon can open a portal that he has discovered into the Nine Hells that is forbidden by infernal beings. Otherwise there is no physical way a mortal can enter the Nine Hells without dying. A rod that must be jammed into the heart of both victims will send a ripple to the Abyss where Rahzeel will tear a rift in the Nine Hells which leads back to the Dreamlands.

On the 3rd level is the 7th piece of the fragment, but while the pieces snap together magically, they must be forged and sealed by only one person, Rameriz Black, the blacksmith who originally forged the Loc Nar. He is located on the 9th level, guarded by a Death Knight (Sir Hodak from Chamber 13).

To get out of the Nine Hells, Rahzeel gave them a beacon to use to signal their need to return to the Dreamlands to which Devian Ray will awaken them after their signal. The beacon fails to open any portal, and they are attacked by wave after wave of infernals. During the battle, their minds are reflected of their past. During which, Pickles is on his final assassin mission to murder Zaburk's wife. No matter what Pickles tries to do in order to change the past, his actions force him to continue with the act, and Zaburk is held to watch the act and knows the truth of Pickles' actions.

Thrown back into reality of the Nine Hells, their attention goes to a Mimic nearby who says the Warlock Enclave has combined powers to bring you out of the levels, but they must leap into the Mimic's mouth being devoured. When they wake, they are back in the city of Leng deep within the Dreamlands but within sight of Azathoth's temple.

Once awaken, they must take Rameriz Black with the fragments to Ming Ki where the Loc Nar was originally created. Once there, they will have to decide whether to follow the Warlock Enclave's request to destroy Koz once and for all, all Cthulhu to enter the world and devour it, or seeking out the Shadow Plane to enter the Korellian Gate to the Assimar's homeworld to destroy it.